Canadian journal of higher education

Is there a Transfer “Penalty” in Ontario PSE? Insights from an Administrative Linkage

Roger Pizarro Milian — 2024-07-10

Studies have explored the relationship between travelling non-linear post-secondary (PSE) pathways and student achievement in multiple jurisdictions. This research aims to overcome some of the major challenges faced by scholars in this area by leveraging a new administrative linkage in Ontario, Canada containing detailed information on students’ academic performance at the high school level, while also holistically capturing their subsequent trajectories through PSE. Our analyses allow us to estimate the presence of a transfer penalty with respect to graduation rates that survives all available controls. We discuss the implications of this penalty for both future research and policy making in Ontario and comparable jurisdictions.

Relations entre les compétences émotionnelles et la qualité des relations interpersonnelles en contexte de stage : le cas des étudiants en formation en enseignement

René Langevin — 2024-11-22

The acquisition of emotional skills in pre-service teacher training is important as they are expected and formally assessed throughout their university curriculum in education. Drawing on Mikolajczak et al.’s (2020) model of emotional competence and Gross and John’s (2003) model of emotional regulation, we explored the quality of students’ relationships with students and school team members during their placement, depending on whether or not they presented alexithymic difficulties. Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties in identifying, analyzing, and verbalizing emotions (Bagby et al., 2020). The sample included 60 fourth-year students (63% female) attending a program at a Canadian university located in Alberta. Data were collected using a one-time correlational design through self-reported questionnaires. The results indicate that student trainees with emotional skill deficits manifested as alexithymia use more expressive suppression at the expense of cognitive reappraisal to regulate their emotions as compared to their non-alexithymic peers who do not have this type of deficiency. The results also suggest that alexithymic student trainees with deficient emotional skills develop lower quality relationships with students and school team stakeholders when compared to those without alexithymia, who have better emotional skills. This study highlights the importance of implementing measures in the first year of initial teacher training that will enable future teachers to develop their emotional competencies in order to reach the level of competence expected for this type of profession.

Embedded Barriers and Impending Costs: The Relationship between Disability, Public Schooling, Post-Secondary Education, and Future Income Earnings

Gillian Parekh — 2024-07-10

In Canada, access to post-secondary education (PSE), which includes university, college, or apprenticeship programs, is becoming ever more important in terms of securing future employment, long-term health, and economic security. Kirby (2009) points to Canada’s universal level of PSE access; however, also notes how access for students with disabilities continues to be more limited. This article reports on a study that examined the barriers students with disabilities encounter in their pursuit of PSE, as well as how they access PSE, their graduation rates, and their future income earnings. With a focus on education, we grounded this study in critical disability theory to consider how disability is constructed and produced through social, environmental, and economic factors. This study built on earlier research that examined students’ graduation from post-secondary education and explored disabled students’ access to post-secondary education and their future earnings following PSE participation. Using a unique linked dataset between school board and federal data, our study revealed that disabled students are almost twice as likely to not access post-secondary education compared to their non-disabled peers. Across disability status, the outcomes of post-secondary credentials do not appear to result in future income parity, suggesting persistent ableism within the workforce.

“I was constantly being questioned”: Racialized STEM Graduate Students in Canada

Augustine Park — 2024-11-22

This article examines the experiences of racialized graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs at one Canadian university. There is virtually no research on racialized inequity and STEM higher education in the Canadian context despite a robust body of literature outside of Canada, especially in the United States. Based on 25 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this article explores the experiences of racialized graduate students in STEM through the lens of the new racism and colour-blindness. Seven racialized dimensions were reported by the participants: stereotyping, being undermined, microaggressions, subtle discriminatory experiences, inequitable funding, resistance to dealing with racism, and performative EDI as a response to racism.

Unexpected Journeys: The Professional Identity Development of Canadian Accessibility Advisors

Brenda McDermott — 2024-12-01

Through examining nine Accessibility Advisors' (AA) stories of becoming, this study provides an important entry point into understanding the individuals whose work is central to supporting students with disabilities within Canadian post-secondary institutions. This understanding adds to the existing literature, augmenting the current work on student experience and policy development. The respondents describe an unplanned, but formative, journey that led to a committed career in disability advising. AA’s construction of their professional identities provides a lens into how post-secondary disability support is tied to the medicalization of disability and advisors’ acknowledgement of the social construction of disability. Advisors start their narratives in post-secondary institutions and experiences related to disability, leading up to an unanticipated job opportunity. Once in the role, the narratives note the importance of professional development in understanding the role. As the advisors conclude their stories of becoming, they return to their pre-role experiences adding new intentionality to the past experiences, connecting post-secondary context to a social definition of disability. As a result, the narratives show how AA situate their work as policy drivers as neutral – neither faculty nor student aligned. However, this neutrality reflects the need of the AA in research-focused universities to develop cultural capital as third space professionals.

Enjeux et défis liés aux démarches d’inclusion : que peut nous apprendre l’expérience du milieu universitaire au Canada?

Sophie Brière — 2024-11-22

In a context in which historically marginalized groups are under-represented in Canadian universities, particularly in faculty, management positions, and in scientific publications and research grants, various initiatives have been launched to make this environment more inclusive. Given that inclusion entails significant transformation, which may shake up traditions in higher education, this study allows for a better understanding of concrete steps designed to implement inclusive practices in Canadian universities. Applying a multidisciplinary theoretical framework and a methodological approach taken from institutional ethnography and based on semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and participant observation, this research identifies the issues and challenges related to these actions along four dimensions: individual experiences of inclusion and exclusion, inclusive organizational practices, manifestations of resistance, and change processes. In addition to showing that transformations related to inclusion in universities go well beyond the drafting of EDI plans or promotional inclusion strategies, this study highlights the importance of considering the change-related resistances, strategies, and processes involved in the implementation of inclusive practices more carefully. This study not only emphasizes change at all stages of the process but also reveals the importance of associating these initiatives more closely with theoretical and conceptual referents by conducting collaborative research that allows knowledge to be co-constructed.

Book Review of "Learning in a Time of Abundance: The Community is the Curriculum"

Brenna Clarke Gray — 2025-01-12

Book Review of "Research Project Management and Leadership: A Handbook for Everyone"

Leah Douglas — 2025-01-12

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Book Review of "Comparative Higher Education Politics: Policymaking in North America and Western Europe"

Hans G. Schuetze — 2025-01-12

Introducing Issue 55:1

Michelle McGinn — 2025-01-12